Janet McDougald

Three school boards are taking the OSSTF to the Ontario Labour Relations Board claiming that the high school teachers are on strike illegally. The three, Peel, Durham, and Rainbow District (Sudbury) are all facing such strikes. But Janet McDougald, Chairman of the Peel board, says it’s a fraud. The teachers have walked out on local talks over issues that must be negotiated at the so-called central table with the province. As such, the OSSTF is using the strikes as a  bludgeon (our word) on the government. That’s illegal, says McDougald. It will be interesting to see what the Labor Relations Board has to say. There is no date set for that.

Hydro One has fired an employee for harassing a woman television reporter during what appears to have been a group-attempt to introduce obscene language into homes and bars where FC games were being broadcast. “Hydro One is taking steps to terminate the employee for violating our Code of Conduct,” Hydro One spokesman Daffyd Roderick said in a statement. The Globe and Mail story linked here recounts how the man fairly wallowed in his ignorance. Good reading. Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment has also pledged Tuesday (May 12, 2015) to find and punish similarly minded-persons by keeping them out of the arena. This abusive conduct is a variation on growing public vulgarity or maybe just the growing ease with which it is distributed. YouTube is notorious for permitting any type of comment. The arrival of Twitter has also introduced vulgar, profane, racist and hateful language into the lives of people who would not normally be so subjected. The celebrated case of Dion Phaneuf and Joffrey Lepui revealed how users of public media like Twitter have no idea that they are subject to prosecution for libel. It was a perfect case of the uneducated (or stupid) barging into the regulated halls of public communication. It may be that many of those who are F-bombing TV reporters think that there is no legal consequence. Not everybody is smart. Below reporter Shauna Hunt of City News confronts the jackasses but they are well protected by their macho armour. Globe and Mail 

The Peter Worthington home on Heath St. E. in Moore Park is has the tell-tale tree fencing in place prior to demolition. The Hudson Drive home sold a year ago $1,440,000.

Nepal has been hit by another earthquake which rescue workers there say has setback their efforts to rescue and support the victims of the first one. This video shows a frightening rock slide caused by the second quake. Video by James Shaw from the Canadian Red Cross.

A 23-year-old woman who did not know she was pregnant (it is said) has given birth on an Air Canada flight from Calgfary to Tokyo. The woman, Ada Guan, was shocked to find what was happening to her. “We just thought she had a bad stomach ache, or cramps or ulcer or something,” said Wes Branch, her boyfriend and now father of a healthy baby girl. He is from Victoria, B.C. “Her belly wasn’t even big. She just thought she was gaining a little bit of a weight. She didn’t think anything out of it.”

They were picking up the pieces from a collision between this Toyota SUV and a pickup truck at Overlea Blvd and Thorncliffe Park Drive. Photo by Rudy Limeback, Leaside and area explorer.

Ottawa Citizen